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Childhood memories inspire a glorious labour of love

By Sharon McDonnellSpecial to the Star

Fri., Feb. 27, 2009

FORT-DE-FRANCE, Martinique–Landscape architect Jean-Phillippe Thoze had such wonderful memories of childhood vacations at his grandmother's home, he couldn't bear to part with them. So he bought her land and transformed it into a gorgeous garden.

It's not just the lush beauty of nearly 200 species of exotic flowers, plants and trees at Le Jardin de Balata that's so alluring: it's the magnificent views from the garden's location high on a hillside as well, offering panoramic vistas of the Pitons du Carbet, six cone-shaped peaks almost 1,100 metres high, and Fort-de-France, Martinique's capital, which the mountains frame as a backdrop.

As a boy, landscape architect Jean-Phillippe Thoze spent many happy hours here at his grandmother’s home in Fort-de-France. (Sharon Mcdonnell photo)

The blooming beauties – which include flowers such as bird of paradise, lobster claw, African tulip, hibiscus, angel's trumpet and water lily and trees such as banana, mango, guava, coconut, date and traveller's palms – are grouped into gardens with tropical, rainforest and high-altitude themes.

Shaded benches beckon visitors to admire the serene views in this microcosm of the untrammelled lushness that is Martinique, known as the "Isle of Flowers," where two-thirds of the land is protected as a regional nature park.

"I love bamboos, majestic trees and the natural organization of the space is what I long for," says Thoze. "My gardens tell the story of my life, a story of openness to the world and freedom."

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Thoze, a passionate horticulturalist who has spent 20 years amassing a collection of flowers and seeds from all over the world, has also worked on landscape design for the Hotel Sofitel Bakoua, on a former estate in Les Trois-Ilets in Martinique, the Botanical Garden in Cayenne, French Guyana and the Nuestra Senora del Carmen Mission in San Felipe, Venezuela.

But his work at Balata Gardens was purely a labour of love.

After acquiring his grandmother's land in 1982, Thoze also purchased a garden of arum lilies of about the same size.

He began landscaping his property in his spare time for his own pleasure, but as his ambition and the garden's scope grew, he brought in a team of gardeners.

Impressed, his friends urged him to share his treasure and open Balata to the public. In 1986, he obliged.

Though Fort-de-France is a city of 100,000 on Martinique's Caribbean coast, a half-hour's drive up a steep, narrow road named the Route de la Trace takes you to another world.

Before the serene oasis that is Balata, the Sacre-Coeur de Balata – a miniature of the famous Sacre-Coeur church in Montmartre in Paris – incongruously appears before your eyes amid luxuriant vegetation where the road departs the city.

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The Route de la Trace eventually leads up the Caribbean coast to Mount Pelee, a volcano and the highest peak on Martinique.

One garden wasn't enough for Thoze, so he created a second garden near Mount Pelee for the public to enjoy.

Latouche Creek's Garden is located at Habitation Latouche, the site of one of Martinique's oldest plantations.

Unlike Balata, which is located in a humid "tropical" zone, Latouche Creek's Garden is in a dry zone, where the soil is difficult to work with and planting entails more technical work.

But the two gardens reflect two different challenges, two goals, two moments of Thoze's life.

Balata is a collection of flowers and plants he painstakingly chose. Latouche is about fitting in and respecting the environment in an uncluttered style, working around pre-existing elements of Martinique history, such as Arawak tools.

Visitors to Martinique owe it to themselves to make a special trip to Thoze's luscious gardens.

As for Thoze, he still lives here, so he can enjoy the beautiful fruit of his labours whenever he pleases.

Sharon McDonnell is a New York City freelance writer whose visit was subsidized by the Martinique Promotion Authority.

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